The Russian author Vladimir Nabokov described his synesthesia in his autobiography. His mother first noticed his interesting visual perceptions when he was a young child and told her the colors on his blocks were wrong. She recognized that he had the rare condition because she too had synethesia.
Duke Ellington saw musical notes in color. Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman experienced it while creating the quantum theory. David Hockney said it helped him design sets for the Metropolitan Opera.
The first thing people ask synesthetes is whether they see letters and words in color on the printed page or on a computer screen. The answer is no because the colors are imprinted in the mind.
One synesthete recalls telling her mother about it, who then promptly suggested she get her eyes tested. Synesthesia doesn't work that way. Colors on the internal computer screen have been imprinted usually since childhood, and that person's colors almost never change over time.
While the most common form of synesthesia is called color-grapheme, where people associate colors with letters, words and numbers, other people may have other crossings of the senses such as hearing green and tasting velvet.
Synethesia literally means "joined sensation" and shares a root with the word anesthesia, which means having no sensation. Most synesthetes would probably describe having the idiosyncratic perceptions as far back as they can remember.
Synesthesia is not a new phenomenon. It has been known for about 300 years. It peaked as a scientific focus around the turn of the 20th century. After decades of declining interest, it is now being studied throughout the world. Part of the renewed interest is due to the fact that synesthetes use the Internet to discover more about it and talk to each other about their experiences.
But the renewed interest might tell researchers more about consciousness, the nature of reality, and the relationship between reason and emotion. There's also speculation that it may be used for rehabilitation in strokes and brain injuries.
Daniel Resnick, M.D., professor of neurosurgery at UW Hospital, says, "Synesthesia tells us most about how different areas of the brain are related in anatomical, physiological, and functional ways. This may give us insight into how consciousness has developed through the interplay between areas of the brain associated with different senses -- the mechanism by which we construct our virtual world inside our consciousness."
A synesthete's world
It's unknown how many people have the phenomena because most synesthetes think everyone sees letters and numbers in color the way they do unless they learn about it from someone else.
Undoubtedly some viewers of ABC's "20/20" TV show a couple of years ago gasped when the program did a feature on synesthesia and discovered there was an actual name for how they see numbers and letters inside their head.
ABC reporter Chris Cuomo followed two women to a paint store so they could show how differently each of them saw different colors and specific shades of colors in their head.
Siri Dell, who works at the State Department in Washington, D.C., learned not everyone has an internal color sense like she does. Her mother in Madison wondered if her oldest daughter might have it since it tends to run in families and another member of the family has it. Dell says, "When my mother started telling me about it, my first reaction was, Wow, I can relate to that, I see that way, too."
She started putting some pieces together and realized that her synesthesia helped her a few years ago as an undergrad at UW-Madison and also as a grad student in Madison.
"I didn't realize it then, but I used synesthesia to help me learn. I color-coded all my folders, which a lot of students do, but I was doing it so I could easily remember the information. Since 'S' is a red letter for me, anything that was an 'S' topic was in a red folder or was underlined in red."
Dell, an A student in school, says she realized it was harder to memorize if there were black letters on white paper. "If I took notes on color paper, or used colored pens for specific topics, I was able to learn easier."
Resnick adds, "People with synesthesia have shown to be very skilled with metaphors, and metaphors can be used as memory aids."
Jerry Halsten, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist with Dean Health System, says, "Another reason people don't know a lot about synesthesia is because as health-care professionals, we miss it. We don't usually ask questions about color and sounds."
Halsten points out, "Not everyone has the same way of processing sensory information, but many people consider synesthesia to be a gift."
Synesthetes sometimes report confusion as to words' meanings. When two words look alike, they can first appear alike internally as a blur of the same color. Dell agrees it's sometimes tough to discern differences. "If I'm looking for a certain street that has several green letters in the name, and I come across a street in the same area that starts with the same green letter and has a similar number of green letters in the name, it's temporarily confusing. "
She cites another interesting example. "If I meet someone whose last name is White, Rose, Green, Gray, Brown or Black, I have to make a conscious effort to remember their names, because the colors of their names in my mind don't match their names. For example, Brown looks navy blue, and Rose looks grayish."
Dell has another form of synesthesia, which she recently recognized when she was talking with her mother. For her, the senses of hearing and taste have also crossed over into visual colors.
"The tone of a person's voice may be soft and I may see it as a soft pink, but then if they start talking fast, or in an urgent or angry tone, the voice changes intensity of color to a dark, sometimes ugly shade of red." Interestingly, Dell says the color of some people's names don 't fit their voices. While it's not a major obstacle to a friendship, the color elements can be almost laughable.
"I know someone whose name and personality match the warm colored letters of her name, but the color of her voice is harsh and uncomfortable to look at.'"
Dell, like many others with this unusual gift, doesn't spend time analyzing the various nuances of how or why the senses cross over. It's just the way things are and have been all their lives.
She says music has a similar effect. "Some music has a calming effect and I see it as white, while other music like acid rock is hard for me to watch' in my mind because the colors are so intense."
Resnick, who plays the saxophone, says he doesn't know if he's a true synesthete, but he does feel color in music. "I think it helps with improvisation as things sound OK as long as I'm in the same 'shade' (when playing with others). This sensation is not unique to me; I have heard many musicians refer to specific keys or progressions of keys using color as metaphor."
A colorful internal world
At a large event, when a synesthete was describing how she sees all letters and numbers in specific, unchanging colors, Roger, the man sitting next to her, asked how she saw his name. "R is grayish brown, O is a light milky tan, G is charcoal, E is forest green and N is a light caramel color," she said. There was a long silence after which Roger disappointedly said his name sounded visually boring.
That assessment is sometimes true, says Dell. "Some words are much prettier when I see them internally. For that reason, I wonder if I'm subconsciously drawn to certain people and places because their words are simply more attractive than other words."
Halsten adds, "Synesthesia probably does influence behavior."
Synesthetes typically find their collision of sights, smells, tastes and sounds nothing more than an interesting part of their identity and an extra bonus.
"But if it causes disruptions in your life, seek help," Halsten says. Health insurance may not cover counseling and support, but if it does cause problems, talk with a health-care professional about possible options.
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